Written by Patience Nyangove
Thursday, 18 February 2010
SWAPO Youth League national executive member Charles Siyauya has accused National Union of Namibian Workers Secretary General, Evilastus Kaaronda of being a tribalist over his allegations that University of Namibia Vice Chancellor, Prof Lazarus Hangula, had embezzled N$5m.
Responding to the story carried in Informanté last week where Kaaronda also accused Prof Hangula and his administration of employing expatriates ahead of Namibians, Siyauya, whose letter was addressed to Swapo Youth League Secretary General, Dr Elijah Ngurare as well as prominent youth league members Paulus Kapia and Arimas Amukuyu, says Kaaronda is using the NUWN position to further his Herero empire at Unam.
In the letter dated 15 February 2010 in possession of Informanté, Siyauya says ‘the Herero empire is being nurtured by a few but very strong self selected Herero speaking Namibians at Unam and Windhoek in particular to make sure that all key positions are occupied by Herero speaking Namibians because Windhoek is Otjimuise and Otjimuise is Hereroland as such they deserve to dominate key positions’.
Siyauya, who is also Unam co-ordinator for International Relations and Personal Assistant to Prof Hangula, claims that Kaaronda is a tribalist because he failed to mention the names of his fellow Herero speaking Namibians who were appointed by Hangula without responding to internally or externally advertising.
“These are Assistant Bursar, the previous Dean of Economics and Management Sciences before the current one, director CPST, senior Staff Development Officer, Head Accommodation. Why is Kaaronda mute about them. The answer is simply because they are all Hereros and he is also Herero or what justification does Cde Kaaronda has for his deliberate omission? This pains me a lot Comrades,” Siyauya wrote.
Siyauya states in his letter that the bone of contention between him and Kaaronda was not about irregularities, financial maladministration at Unam and lack of confidence in its management as claimed by Kaaronda in his letter to Unam Chancellor Dr Sam Nujoma but the recent appointment of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Administration and Finance, who is a Mufwe speaking Namibian from Kanono Village.
“This position was previously occupied by a Herero speaking Namibian and one of the applicants who happen to be Herero speaking was not short shortlisted for the interview by the Unam Council (and not Unam senior management) he later resorted to media sympathy, political mobilisation and now Kaaronda campaigns to assist him to secure this position which is already filled.”
Siyauya ends his letter by claiming that Kaaronda phoned him demanding that he withdraw his accusations of calling him a tribalist but he refused.
When contacted for comment Kaaronda said he has not seen Siyauya’s letter and he does not know what tribalism is about.
“Those who are tribalists have the inclination to look at everything from a tribalist point of view. The issues at hand are clear, procedures were not followed and it’s our duty to call for investigations where we feel public funds were misused. That’s why we wrote to the Founding Father.
“I don’t understand where the issue of tribalism is coming from. However, it goes without saying that those who are quick to label others tribalists are the ones who are tribalists,” Kaaronda said.
Siyauya admitted writing the letter but refused to comment on the issue saying as a disciplined Swapo cadre he can’t divulge more information to the media because he does not know how the media got the letter since it’s a an internal Swapo matter.
Ngurare refused to comment on the matter.
However, Informanté has it on good authority that he called for a meeting between the feuding parties to try and find a solution to the impasse with more meetings expected since the first meeting yielded no results.
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